To configure an ultrasound system for an examination of a patient, a sonographer analyzes information about the patient to be examined in order to determine what ultrasound settings to use. The sonographer then manually configures the ultrasound system with these settings. One source of patient information is a hospital information system ("HIS") or a radiology information system ("RIS"). In some clinical environments, information about a patient to be examined is entered into a HIS/RIS when the examination is scheduled. At the time of the examination, the sonographer can access this information via a HIS/RIS terminal. The sonographer can then interpret the relevant patient information and configure the ultrasound system accordingly. For example, the sonographer can decide which system presets or ultrasound settings to use by considering the age, weight, and condition of the patient to be studied. The sonographer can also use information stored on a HIS/RIS to determine which fields (e.g., age, sex, weight, etc.) should be added to a patient demographic worksheet and to manually populate these fields.
Recently, some ultrasound systems have been provided with the capability of interfacing with a HIS/RIS so that a sonographer can retrieve and view patient information from the ultrasound system. While this advance makes accessing the HIS/RIS more convenient for the sonographer, the sonographer still faces the sometimes difficult and time consuming task of interpreting the retrieved patient information and manually configuring the ultrasound system or patient demographic worksheet.
There is a need, therefore, for a method and system for configuring a medical diagnostic ultrasound imaging system that will overcome the disadvantages described above.